5 Tips to Improve your Applicant Experience

This is the song that never ends,
It just goes on and on, my friends.
Some people started singing it not knowing what it was,
And now they can’t stop singing it forever just because…
(repeat indefinitely)

If this song gets on your nerves, then imagine how your applicants feel while completing a never ending online application. This quarter, I challenge you to stop the suffering by delivering a high touch job seeker experience! Below I’ve put together five tips to get you started.

Provide an estimated time to completion. In the welcome message, inform the applicants how long the process will take and what information will be needed. By providing them with this information upfront, applicants will be better prepared to complete the process.

Provide a progress meter so that they can gauge their time to completion

Repeat after me “more is not always better.” “More is not always better.” The more questions asked, the less focused the applicant becomes. To remedy this, divide the application process into multiple phases. Our research found that a two-step application process increased the application completion rate by 20%

Divide and conquer. I’ve reviewed many applicant tracking systems, and some of them disgustingly use a single-page design. This single page design turns into a long data entry form with just one save button. A very long form which requires the applicant to enter a lot of information without saving….a very long form of information that could be left on a screen on library computer, or be lost in a “glitch”. Nothing is more aggravating than starting over from scratch. Overcome this by delivering your online application across several pages that can be completed quickly and saved often.